Wednesday, 14 August 2013

Devilish compromises of fighting ‘evil’ played out on stage

Robert Fisk Independent/UK 11 August, 2013 Shaw's
1907 play about a weapons manufacturer is now more relevant than ever

And
so to Major Barbara at the Abbey. Every Western arms salesman I have
met – usually at arms “fairs” in the Gulf – knows Andrew Undershaft, the
grotesque, brilliant, intellectual weapons manufacturer in George BernardShaw’s 1907 play who abides by the faith of the armourer: “To
give arms to all men who offer an honest price for them, without respect of
persons or principles: to aristocrat and republican, to nihilist and Tsar, to
Capitalist and Socialist, to Protestant and Catholic, to burglar and policeman,
to black man, white manand yellow
man, to… all nationalities, all faiths, all follies, all causes and all
crimes.”

Shaw had an ambiguous relationship with post-independence
Ireland – he did not believe in the Celtic ideal or the neo-Gaelic movement –
and incredibly this is the Dublin Abbey Theatre’s first performance of Shaw’s
most socialist of plays. As director Annabelle Comyn remarked,Major Barbara’s themes – of
poverty, welfare, the labour market advocating for better conditions – are
relevant today in Ireland as well as Britain. But it still contains a painful
message to the Middle East, and not just because it is set during the Balkan
wars; the character of Adolphus Cusins, a professor of Greek soon to inherit
Undershaft’s magnificent, oh-so-clean, labour-intensive, pseudo-socialist
Middlesex weapons plant, admits that he gave a revolver to a student to fight for
Greece. “The blood of every Turk he shot … is on my head as well as
Undershaft’s.” That’s all the Muslims get in Major Barbara.

But in the past in the Middle East, it
was very easy to sympathise with Major Barbara herself, theSalvation Armydaughter of Undershaft – and fiancée
of Cusins – who saves souls in the East End of London. “There are neither good
men nor scoundrels,” she pompously informs her father. “There are just children
of one Father … I know them. I’ve had scores of them through my hands:
scoundrels, criminals, infidels, philanthropists, missionaries, county
councillors … They’re all just the same sort of sinner; and there’s the same
salvation ready for them all.”

The
play’s contrived but still relevant hinge creaks when the Salvation Army is
forced to accept money from both Undershaft and a whiskey magnate – the
destroyers of people, if not souls – in order to remain active.

But this devilish compromise is now more
relevant than ever; not becauseTony Blairabandoned a criminal inquiry into
bribery by a British arms manufacturer in Saudi Arabia to protect “the national
interest”, nor because the late Robin Cook’s mission statement on weapons sales
– only to sell to the good guys – fell to pieces, but because Major Barbara
herself, along with her ruthless father, have today become one.

Barbara’s
self-denial, her craving after salvation and God, have been echoed to the
letter by George W Bush and Blair and now by Barack Obama. True, they all
believe(d) in good and bad – or “evil” – but they all held God close to their
heart. They all preached, especially Blair and Obama, with salvationist
obsession. Barbara is undoubtedly “faith-based”, like our Tony. Obama likes
making speeches – like Barbara, but also like Undershaft. You can listen to
Barbara admit to a dockland bully that her father was “a Secularist”, just as
Obama told his audience in Cairo that he came from a family which included
“generations of Muslims”. And when Barbara asks her father to define his faith
– and he replies: “Well, my dear, I am a millionaire. That is my religion” –
you can almost hear Blair breathing.

There’s
a wonderful moment at the arms foundry when Undershaft arrives with a telegram
to tell his family of “good news from Manchuria”. Another Japanese victory, he
is asked? “Oh, I don’t know,” he replies. “Which side wins does not concern us
here. No: the good news is that the aerial battleship is a tremendous success.
At the first trial it has wiped out a fort with three hundred soldiers in it.”
These are not dummy soldiers blown to bits, he assures his family. It’s “the
real thing”.

Undershaft’s
“aerial battleship” – elsewhere an “aerial torpedo” – is, of course, our
drone. Just as this weekend we were asked to celebrate the killing of six
al-Qa’ida members in Yemen and five insurgents in the Sinai, northern Egypt –
most assuredly “the real thing” by “aerial battleships” belonging to Messrs
Obama and Netanyahu – so Undershaft produces these wonder-weapons in a
squeaky-clean armaments factory whose workers worship at brand new churches and
live in comfortable houses in the safety of Middlesex. The drone
commanders of today, like Undershaft’s men, work from equally squeaky-clean
computer consoles.

Put bluntly, our leaders speak in the language
ofMajor Barbara– of salvation and human rights –
while producing the weapons to obliterate fellow men. At least Undershaft
implies that the innocent also die under his guns. Barbara speaks of “the power
to burn women’s houses down and … tear their husbands to pieces” – Shaw would
have made endless play of “collateral damage” – but Syria is providing
countless opportunities for Russian and Western arms-makers; giving to Alawite
and Sunni, to “all causes and all crimes”.

At
the end of the play, Cusins agrees to inherit Undershaft’s factory so that he
can “make war on war”. How that would appeal to Bush, Blair and Obama. Finally,
Cusins announces that he wants “a power simple enough for common men to use,
yet strong enough to force the intellectual oligarchy to use its genius for the
general good.” No Labour election manifesto should be without this line.

Buzzwords flourish in brave new world of
the Gulf

Arab
autocrats cling to their thrones with the complicity of secret policemen, but
the Gulf states are fighting off the revolutionary winds with cliches. In
a recent energy conference in Doha, delegates exchanged cynical glances when a
Qatari official repeatedly spoke about his country’s “strategic vision”.
Not just a vision, mark you, but a ‘strategic’ vision. As the Algerian
journalist Akram Belkaid points out, Anglo-Saxon advisers have sold the
‘vision’ idea to rival monarchs whose skyscrapers (Qatar/Kuwait), new cities
(Saudi Arabia) , ports (Oman), economic diversification (Dubai/Abu Dhabi), airlines
(Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways), metros and museums are now an Arab Hadrian’s
Wall against insurgent barbarism.

All
talk is now of “projects” – worth billions rather than millions – which are
“world class” in standard, sprouting amid “emerging markets” which constitute
new “hubs” in the region. Belkaid inevitably identifies the language of
these “global” hubs – whose local royal flunkies dub themselves “global press
officer” on their visiting cards – as English (the language of higher education
and journalism in the Gulf); thus international finance will understand
how well the Gulf States nurture a “strong economy” with “sustainable
development” and “human capital”.

Women in the region are to be
“empowered” – though not to the point of emancipation in a patriarchal society
– while “labour nationalisation” will put an end to foreign workers (who may be
subject to “deportation”, a less pleasant and thus less useful word).
“Leisure” is, by the same token, a happier word than “luxury” – ‘leisure’ can
be “enjoyed” – and “cultural heritage” must replace “modernity”. It’s all
about “nation building”. This may be hard to accept amid the blood of
Syrians, Egyptians, Tunisians, Libyans – even Algerians – but who believes now
that the Gulf is really part of the Middle East?

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About Me

I am not an academic. I have been a commercial beekeeper in New Zealand for most of my working life, except for four years in detention as a conscientious objector during WW2. Those years were particularly formative for me. I have retained my horror of war and the suffering still being caused by armed conflict and violence in so many places. My convictions have been nurtured by my Methodist church connection, though my pacifism has been deplored by some good people.

Expect no slick answers here; I am still a searcher myself. How can a just and peaceful society develop from this chaos, and what are the obstacles in the way?

Most of the articles posted here are from other sources. I look for writers, wherever they can be found, who can throw light on what is happening in our world. If you would like to learn a little more about myself, please read this biographical interview series conducted by my granddaughter, Kyla.